Does this mean that, if something goes wrong or the machine is hacked or something, then John Deere are liable for any damage done? If the IT components are not fit for purpose, is there legal recourse (class action?) for anyone affected by their failure in duty of care?
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“One by one all these things became free“
Sure they will. When the Federation arrives. Unfortunately, that’s a different timeline.
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Written for the online outlet of the hosts of the Davos conference. Yeah, he may think it’s all free but someone in that city (or is it a company town?) is profiting. Someone in that city owns something, even if it’s just privacy.
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Do you want evil sentient combine harvesters?
Because that is how you get evil sentient combine harvester!
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you do know that this is where your food’s from, yeah?
what affects them, affects us. and precisely because people don’t show much interest, things like having to rent ( “license”, not own ) equipment can be pretty hard on farmers. but the corporations? they just keep getting larger and more powerful
that’s part of what’s feeding money to the gop
my understanding is that’s pretty much what all of the gop’s last round of tax cuts went to 
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Quite true, and the truth is the repair usually isn’t much. It’s getting the machine into town that costs you.
City folk don’t tend to understand this aspect of heavy machinery. If it’s a failure that leaves the machine driveable and your land is close enough to town and the machine in question has road gears and there aren’t too many miles of terrifying highway involved, maybe you can spend the entire day driving it in.
Otherwise you’re calling a tractor trailer to load it up, and that starts at ten grand. All that to haul it in for a new ball joint or whatever because John Deere won’t sell you the $200 part.
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It’s where most corporate COVID relief (especially for airlines) went also. It was a giant upward wealth transfer that will take a generation to claw back. 
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And what is behind most of “inflation” over the past year.
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My food does not come from JD.
Who are “they?”
That’s why JD needs too take a major hit from this an see their profits tank. They’re not too big to fail, so let them, if they don’t turn themselves around. It won’t happen overnight and there are many other companies that could fill the void left by Deere.
Let John Deere be an example of what not to do for any other manufacturers.
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they are the farmers who use john deere products
it does in that the farmers who make the food you eat use john deere products
unfortunately, that’s rarely the way modern capitalism works. john deere - and everyone else - doesn’t want to sell a tractor, they want to sell a service. it’s much more profitable that way. wall street knows that and therefore everyone is in the same game
laws like “the right to repair” - or hacks like in the op - help break that influence because policy matters way more than “market forces” in our modern world
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Deere and others are free to sell services if they choose, but nobody is forcing anyone to use Deere products.
Buyers with choices don’t need any one supplier, but every supplier needs buyers.
If enough buyers decide not to play that game, then the resulting loss of reputation & sales may change Deere management’s mind.
Dang it! Our products are for shit! We may be forced to engage the help of all those know-it-all, over-educated, commie-lib elitists.
Deere management is disconnected from the actual John Deere business. It’ll take a lot of failure before they sit up and take notice.
Obviously farm equipment and motorcycles are completely different markets, and tractors aren’t going out of style as boomers age out.
But you could probably hot-swap the top management, because Harley and Deere are only brand names and stock prices to them.
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I agree about punishing corporations for bad behaviour. It would be really bad for farmers (and by extension city folk who eat) if Deere failed though.
Farm machinery is a major capital investment. A modern four wheel drive articulated tractor capable of pulling a 60’ seed drill is north of half a million dollars. Modern large scale combines approach a million dollars. A farmer’s tractor is worth five times what his house is. Like that house, it needs to be paid for over decades, and needs to be repaired and maintained that entire time. If John Deere parts and service suddenly go away, that farmer is ruined.
Better to fix the regulations (like the totally broken DMCA that all these companies are hiding behind) and reform campaign finance so these companies can’t keep finding new ways to do this.
Consumer choice has never been an effective check on corporate malfeasance. This is a primary role of government, though America seems to have forgotten this lately.
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